Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 31 - Crow is mad

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

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Chapter 31

Valkyrie left the building where they met Wreath and felt a lot better than when she went it. Calmer. Wreath had that effect on her she supposed, not like Crow who made her either want to bounce around and start doing something or like she needed a nap. It was a nice difference.

Crow was sitting on the van, obviously angry and Panda was sitting looking at her with a frown. She supposed Crow hadn't wanted to talk about it. He looked concerned.

She opened the back door and got in. It was silent. Even Fletcher looked a bit worried over whatever was happening.

"Why are you so quiet?" She asked, trying to seem nonchalant, taking her seat.

No one answered but they started driving smoothly away from the house. They drove for almost two hours, taking what must have been country roads the whole way back to the mansion. Valkyrie closed her eyes to hide her sadness. It seemed Wreath was right. Skulduggery didn't seem as if he was going be holding his anger back.

Crow was out the van and inside before anyone could say anything. Panda sighed, got out and opened the back for them. He smiled tiredly at her but said nothing. Was he on Crow's side? Had she alienated herself? They were her family. She'd been gone for less than ten minutes alone with Wreath, surely this wasn't that big of a betrayal to them?

Fletcher got out after the sisters and looked up at the house. He admired it out loud, but Valkyrie didn't respond, just went to Tanith and took her hand. Tanith squeezed it and kept her close, supporting her even if Crow was angry and Panda was on the fence about it all. Fletcher caught up to them.

"Come on," she said before he could say anything stupid. "I'll show you your room."

The three of them went upstairs to the second floor, finding a room at the very back that would be away from both Peregrine and the Dead Men plus Tanith. It was for the best, perhaps, that they didn't annoy each other. It was why Crow and Panda still had their houses, and Dexter his Dublin apartment; it gave them a place to go away from other people. The other Dead Men could and did stay there on occasion too.

"I hope you like it," Valkyrie said quietly. There was a crash downstairs somewhere and Tanith kissed her cheek and went to see who had broken what. She waited for Tanith to go and sat at the desk. "It's been a confusing day I bet."

He chuckled and sat on the ottoman at the end of the bed. "Yeah, a little. It's nice to have a place to sleep without moving as soon as I wake up though."

"Yeah, the others like that too. Saracen, Erskine, Tanith, and Dexter that it. The others were settled but those guys hadn't really bothered. They still go away a lot, for weeks or months at a time sometimes. But they can always come back to their bed and their stuff, you know? It's nice. It's why my Uncle Gordon left me this place," she rattled on. "So, I wouldn't have to keep moving. With my parent's dead, Skulduggery got guardianship of me, and then adopted me so none of my other family could petition it and have me taken away. When he died I got the mansion and the others moved in so I could stay too. I wouldn't have cared but thinking about it, it's really good."